Book Review: Good Girl, Bad Blood by Holly Jackson

Good Girl, Bad Blood
Author: Holly Jackson
Series: A Good Girl's Guide to Murder (Book 2)
Publication: Delacorte Press (March 2, 2021)

Description: THE MUST-READ MULTIMILLION BESTSELLING MYSTERY SERIES • More dark secrets are exposed in this addictive, true-crime fueled sequel when Pip finds herself in another deadly case.

Pip is not a detective anymore.

With the help of Ravi Singh, she released a true-crime podcast about the murder case they solved together last year. The podcast has gone viral, yet Pip insists her investigating days are behind her.

But she will have to break that promise when someone she knows goes missing. Jamie Reynolds has disappeared, on the very same night the town hosted a memorial for the sixth-year anniversary of the deaths of Andie Bell and Sal Singh.

The police won't do anything about it. And if they won't look for Jamie then Pip will, uncovering more of her town's dark secrets along the way... and this time everyone is listening. But will she find him before it's too late?

My Thoughts: This story begins very soon after THE GOOD GIRL'S GUIDE TO MURDER. It would be beneficial but not essential to read that story first. 

Pip and Ravi Singh solved a murder case the previous year and created a podcast about it. The story uncovered a bunch of secrets in Pip's small town and almost got her killed. She has agreed with her parents not to get involved in another murder investigation for her own health and safety.

However, when a good friend's older brother goes missing and the police aren't doing anything about it, Pip feels like she has to get involved. Her investigation uncovers more secrets and tests her to the limit. She and Ravi are busy making podcasts about one of the people uncovered in the earlier investigation who is on trial as a serial rapist. But it looks like season two is going to be about the disappearance of Jamie Reynolds. 

The story details the investigation to try to find Jamie and uses all of today's social media to try to help find him. It also details the way Pip changes as she buries herself in another investigation. I enjoyed the investigation. I liked the relationship between Pip and her friends. 

This was a hard story to put down until I found out whether Jamie was located and why he went missing. 

Favorite Quote:

"Shouting? Really?" Pip said, really shouting now. "That's what we're focusing on? A serial rapist walked free today. Jamie has been missing for six whole days and might be dead. Oh, but the real problem is that I'm shouting!" 

"Calm down. please," he said.

"I can't! I can't calm down anymore! Why should I?"

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.

Friday Memes: Good Girl, Bad Blood by Holly Jackson

 Happy Friday everybody!

Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Rose City Reader. The Friday 56 is hosted at Freda's Voice. Check out the links above for the rules and for the posts of the participants each week. Don’t dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

Beginning:

You think you'd know what a killer sounds like.

That their lies would have a different texture, some barely perceptible shift. A voice that thickens, grows sharp and uneven as the truth slips beneath the jagged edges. You'd think that, wouldn't you? Everyone thinks they'd know, if it came down to it. But Pip hadn't.

Friday 56:

Pip straightened and crossed her arms. "Missing person," she said. "Jamie Reynolds from Fairview. Case number four nine zero zero--"

"Yeah, I saw the report," Hawkins interrupted. "What about it?"

"Why aren't you doing anything about it?"

This week I am spotlighting Good Girl, Bad Blood by Holly Jackson. This is the sequel to a book a read a while ago. It was a Kindle Daily Deal in December, and I scooped it up.

Here's the description from Amazon:

THE MUST-READ MULTIMILLION BESTSELLING MYSTERY SERIES • More dark secrets are exposed in this addictive, true-crime fueled sequel when Pip finds herself in another deadly case.

Pip is not a detective anymore.

With the help of Ravi Singh, she released a true-crime podcast about the murder case they solved together last year. The podcast has gone viral, yet Pip insists her investigating days are behind her.

But she will have to break that promise when someone she knows goes missing. Jamie Reynolds has disappeared, on the very same night the town hosted a memorial for the sixth-year anniversary of the deaths of Andie Bell and Sal Singh.

The police won't do anything about it. And if they won't look for Jamie then Pip will, uncovering more of her town's dark secrets along the way... and this time everyone is listening. But will she find him before it's too late?

Audiobook Review: Aged for Murder by Fiona Grace

Aged for Murder
Author: Fiona Grace
Narrator: Quinn Francis
Series: A Tuscan Vineyard Cozy Mystery (Book 1)
Publication: Fiona Grace (July 8, 2020)
Length: 6 hours and 34 minutes

Description: Aged for Murder is the debut novel in a charming new cozy mystery series by number one best-selling author Fiona Grace, author of Murder in the Manor, a number one best seller.

When Olivia Glass, 34, concocts an ad for a cheap wine that propels her advertising company to the top, she is ashamed by her own work, yet offered the promotion she’s dreamed of.

Olivia, at a crossroads, realizes this is not the life she signed up for. Worse, when Olivia discovers her long-time boyfriend, about to propose, has been cheating on her, she realizes it’s time for a major life change.

Olivia has always dreamed of moving to Tuscany, living a simple life, and starting her own vineyard. When her long-time friend messages her about a Tuscan cottage available, Olivia can’t help wonder: Is it fate?

Hilarious, packed with travel, food, wine, twists and turns, romance, and her newfound animal friend and centering around a baffling small-town murder that Olivia must solve, Aged for Murder is an engaging cozy that will keep you laughing late into the night.

My Thoughts: AGED FOR MURDER was an interesting cozy mystery. Ad executive Olivia Glass is dissatisfied with her life. She has developed a very successful ad campaign for a wine that she doesn't believe in and doesn't enjoy. The way the wine is produced goes against her belief that wine should be made in vineyards with committed winemakers. When her boss offers her more work for the same company, she abruptly quits her job.

That evening she's supposed to be on a date with her long-time live-in lover when he decides to break up with her. And she learns that he has been having an affair with his personal assistant which is the final bad thing on a day filled with them. 

However, one good thing does happen. A long-time friend invites her to share a villa with her in Tuscany for a couple of weeks. Counting on her final paycheck and a substantial bonus for the hated ad campaign, Olivia catches the next available flight. 

She has always dreamed of having her own boutique vineyard in Tuscany despite the fact that her sole knowledge of winemaking consists of liking to drink it and knowing which sorts she likes. When she learns that her boss has no intention of paying her what he owes her, Olivia is in a tough spot. 

Luckily, a nearby vineyard is looking for a sommelier and Olivia applies. She impresses the owner with her enthusiasm, but the head sommelier is less impressed and, in fact, does everything to sabotage her. When he is found dead - bashed in the head with a wine bottle, Olivia is a prime suspect who needs to clear her name if she ever wants her dreams to come true.

I had some major problems with Olivia's character. She seems to vacillate between being air-headed and being amazingly perceptive. She seems to go off into wild daydreams at really inappropriate times. She often seemed to have misplaced priorities. I did like the way one of the local goats seemed to adopt her and follow her around leaving Olivia to fantasize about being a goat whisperer or goat trainer if the winemaking gig doesn't work out. 

I bought the Kindle and added the audiobook February 5, 2021. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: Board to Death by CJ Connor

Board to Death
Author: CJ Connor
Series: A Board Game Shop Mystery (Book 1)
Publication: Kensington Cozies (August 22, 2023)

Description: The first in an ulta-charming new “quozy” mystery series starring Ben Rosencrantz, a queer 30-something English professor (and closet scifi fan) who’s returned to his hometown of Salt Lake City to run his family’s board game shop in the trendy Sugar House neighborhood – a community hotspot for players of all ages…and for killer collectors!

Back in his hometown of Sugar House running his family’s board game shop and café, Ben Rosencrantz just can’t seem to get his life to pass go, much less collect $200. Once he was a happily married English professor in Seattle. Now he’s a divorced caregiver, looking after his ill father and a Chihuahua named Beans while still figuring out the rules of retail management. At least the town has become more LGBTQ+ friendly than when Ben was a teenager—and that flower shop owner, Ezra McCaslin, enjoys flirting with him.

But despite his usual clientele of gamers, Ben is barely earning enough to keep the store running and stay on top of his father’s medical bills. Then a local toy and game collector named Clive offers him a winning strategy—to purchase a turn-of-the-twentieth-century edition of The Landlord’s Game, the realty and taxation game that inspired Monopoly, at a tenth of the rare edition’s true value. Suspicious of Clive’s shady, low-priced deal, Ben turns the offer down.

Then Clive turns up dead at the front door of Ben’s and a backpack full of $100 bills appears on his doorstep. Now Ben is the #1 suspect in Clive’s death, and unless he and Ezra can prove his innocence and find the real killer, he’ll go to jail for murder—and no amount of double dice rolls will set him free...

My Thoughts: Ben Rosencrantz is back in Salt Lake City after a divorce from his husband and leaving his job as an English professor in Seattle. He's caregiver for his father who has developed late onset muscular dystrophy and trying to keep his father's board game shop solvent. 

When a guy comes to try to sell him a rare game, Ben refuses. But when the guy if found stabbed to death outside the shop, Ben needs to solve the mystery of who wanted Clive Newton dead and who is trying to frame Ben for the crime.

Ben is assisted by new friend flower shop owner Ezra. And Ben needs the help. He's shy and suffers from social anxiety. Also, he's an English professor and board game player, not a detective of any kind. 

This was an engaging story with interesting characters. I liked the setting of Salt Lake City and the way an openly gay man deals with his less-than-tolerant hometown. I also liked the introduction to gamer culture. 

Favorite Quote:

"I don't think you have it in you. I think you'd sooner run into a tree than kill a spider, let alone a person."

"It's less messy if you put them in a cup and let them out. And humane. Everyone knows that."

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: Nine Lives and Alibis by Cate Conte

Nine Lives and Alibis
Author: Cate Conte
Series: Cat Cafe Mystery (Book 7)
Publication: St. Martin's Paperbacks (August 22, 2023)

Description: In Nine Lives and Alibis, the seventh in Cate Conte's Cat Café beloved cozy mystery series, Daybreak Island is gearing up for Halloween—but this year it seems like it'll be all tricks and no treats.

It’s October in Daybreak Harbor, which means everything Halloween. The town is going all out for the holiday, hoping to one-up the festivities in neighboring Salem, Massachusetts, and Maddie James is delighted to be part of the planning for the annual happenings.

But trouble brews when Maddie’s youngest sister, Sam, books a famous medium, Balfour Dempsey, to come to town for the celebrations and stay in the local haunted inn—along with his equally famous black cat. The town busybody books a secret reading with Balfour and doesn’t want anyone to know why. Maddie’s best friend Becky is hell-bent on getting Balfour to help her solve two 40-year-old mysteries—a murder and a missing maid. And the psychic has a stalker who’s followed him here to the island, demanding he connect with her dead husband.

When Balfour is pushed off the cliffs behind the inn to his death and his beloved cat goes missing, it throws the whole town into a frenzy. And Maddie and her family find themselves in the middle of a murder mystery straight out of a Halloween movie.

My Thoughts: This is the seventh book in the Cat Cafe Mystery series. It is the first I have read, and I enjoyed the variety of characters and the mystery.

Maddie James has recently come home to Daybreak Harbor. She opened a Cat Cafe with a partner and is busy getting back into life on the island. Currently she's working with her mother and sisters to coordinate the local Halloween celebration which they hope will rival Salem's.

After all, they have a haunted inn with a variety of ghosts and they have two unsolved mysteries from forty years earlier which are also still garnering attention. They have hired a psychic named Balfour Dempsey to come to town to be the centerpiece of the festival and to possibly provide insight into the two long unsolved crimes. Balfour's mother is a local who is recently retired but doing some work for the local newspaper.

When Balfour is found at the bottom of a cliff the first night of the festival, Maddie finds herself getting involved in the murder investigation. There are lots of suspects including members of his entourage, a stalker, and locals who aren't at all sure that they want the forty-year-old mysteries solved. 

This was a fun story. I liked the way Maddie uses her local knowledge to learn more about the past. I thought the plot was well-developed and interesting. I liked the way Maddie was a sceptic about the paranormal when everyone around her seemed much more open to believing in ghosts and psychics. 

Favorite Quote:

"What do you mean, the psychic can't stay at the haunted inn? That's kind of the whole point of bringing him here. To do readings at the haunted inn, in the haunted rooms. That's one of the reasons he agreed to come." Did I really need to explain this?

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

Audiobook Review: Dark Path by Melissa F. Miller

Dark Path
Author: Melissa F. Miller
Narrator: Andrew Tell
Series: A Bodhi King Novel (Book 1)
Publication: OrangeSky Audio (March 23, 2021)
Length: 6 hours and 29 minutes

Description: Healthy residents of a posh assisted living facility are dying in the middle of the night...expressions of pure terror etched on their faces.

After solving a series of unexplained deaths several years ago, forensic pathologist Dr. Bodhi King retreated from the limelight. Now, he's called out of early retirement to help investigate a death cluster on a private island in the Florida Keys, where he lands in the middle of a simmering conflict.

Members of the Golden Island Church have a furtive agenda to protect. The dying Cuban Americans have long-held secrets of their own. And everyone seems to have a reason to stop Bodhi from bringing the truth to light.

My Thoughts: The first Bodhi King mystery introduces Buddhist Dr. Bodhi King who is a forensic specialist. After gaining too much publicity for his liking, he decided to retire from public view. Now, a case in the Florida Keys draws him back into the world. People who live in an assisted living facility are dying unexpectedly with looks of terror on their faces.

Bodhi is called down to the scene by the local medical examiner. The Golden Life Church which owns the island where the facility is located offers to hire him, but he prefers his independence. It seems strange to him that all the victims were Roman Catholics and not members of the Golden Life Church. Religion plays a strong role in this mystery. Beyond Roman Catholicism and the beliefs of the Golden Life church, there are references to religions brought over from Africa and melded with the Catholic religion which are practiced by some of the victims in this story. 

The story is packed with interesting characters. The local police liaison has anger management issues. The local medical examiner is a hippie living in an airstream trailer. The head of the Golden Life Church, a church that seems to have the goal of making everyone wealthy, seems to have an agenda of his own. Bodhi is intriguing too. His Buddhist beliefs are evident.

This is the first of a series that will reach eight books in September. 

I got the Kindle version February 12, 2022 from BookBub where it was a free title. I added on the audiobook. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: Murder at the Elms by Alyssa Maxwell

Murder at the Elms
Author: Alyssa Maxwell
Series: A Gilded Newport Mystery (Book 11)
Publication: Kensington (August 22, 2023)

Description: For fans of HBO’s The Gilded Age, the glorious mansions of Newport house many mysteries—murder, theft, scandal—and no one is more adept at solving them than reporter Emma Andrews . . .

1901: Back from their honeymoon in Italy, Emma and Derrick are adapting to married life as they return to their duties at their jointly owned newspaper, the Newport Messenger. The Elms, coal baron Edward Berwind’s newly completed Bellevue Avenue estate, is newsworthy for two reasons: A modern mansion for the new century, it is one of the first homes in America to be wired for electricity with no backup power system, generated by coal from Berwind’s own mines. And their servants—with a single exception—have all gone on strike to protest their working conditions. Summarily dismissing and replacing his staff with cool and callous efficiency, Berwind throws a grand party to showcase the marvels of his new “cottage.”

Emma and Derrick are invited to the fete, which culminates not only in a fabulous musicale but an unforeseen tragedy—a chambermaid is found dead in the coal tunnel. In short order, it is also discovered that a guest’s diamond necklace is missing and a laborer has disappeared.

Detective Jesse Whyte entreats Emma and Derrick to help with the investigation and determine whether the murdered maid and stolen necklace are connected. As the dark deeds cast a shadow over the blazing mansion, it’s up to Emma to shine a light on the culprit . . .

My Thoughts: In the eleventh Gilded Newport mystery, Emma and Derrick are married and back from their honeymoon. Emma is fretting that neither his house nor her house feels like their house. But it is back to work for her as the reporter for the Newport Messenger. 

Emma is called to the Elms, a newly built mansion, when she learns that the servants are threatening to strike over working conditions. She goes there and finds rival publisher Orville Brown agitating for the workers. When they do strike, The Elms owner Ned Berwind fires all of them but a Portuguese woman named Ines who refuses to join the strike. 

Just a couple of weeks later, Emma and Derrick are invited to a musical night at The Elms and meets two different couples who are houseguests. Charles and Kay Gilchrist are a mismatched couple. He's much older and a colleague of Ned's. Rex and Sylvie Morton are the other couple. He's an investment banker and she's the one who sponsored the musical entertainment. 

When the entertainment is broken up by the discovery of maid Ines's body in the coal tunnel, Emma and Derrick both decide to look into the crime. And just a while later, when a valuable diamond necklace is stolen from Rex's safe, things get more complicated. 

As Emma looks into the mystery, she discovers lots and lots of connections between the couple and lots more questions than answers when she interviews them leading her to find herself in danger.

This was an entertaining mystery. I liked the historical setting. I also liked the relationship between Emma and Derrick. I've only read the first in this series and had no trouble getting into this one. While earlier events are mentioned, no knowledge is needed to understand and enjoy this mystery. 

Fans of historical mysteries will enjoy this story.

Favorite Quote:

"Mr. Morton, obviously this is no ordinary necklace. What is it? Why all the secrecy?" I didn't say "from your wife," but the implication hung in the air between us.

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.